In a country consistently rated as one of the world’s most liveable, we’ve somehow developed a deadly disregard toward our own welfare.
AAP/Joel Carrett
Earth is a relatively dry planet compared to some of the other ocean worlds in our Solar system. Life needs water so what about life on these other places?
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after dementia.
from shutterstock.com
The true promise of ageing research is that rather than tackling individual diseases one at a time, a single drug to treat ageing would treat all of the diseases that arise in old age, at once.
Stories in the media are often the first or even the only way that people hear about science and medical news. So we need to get the reporting right.
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Health reporting requires asking the right questions and doing quality research. But specialist skills are also handy, especially when it comes to knowing the language and processes of science.
A ‘loss of community’ is one of the most common concerns among contemporary Australians.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Insights from psychology, neuroscience, economics and political science on how the incoming president might move people from the extreme right or left of the political spectrum to a sociable centre.
Proper nutrition is critical to combatting the costly and deadly epidemics of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
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Food, drug and other companies often sponsor research in the hope it might produce results favourable to their products. How can we ensure such research remains independent?
A booby family on a sandy cay in the Coral Sea.
Daniela Ceccarelli
The marine reserves review has recommended major changes to the Coral Sea, but not for the better.
Gurindji ranger Ursula Chubb pays her respects to ancestors killed in the early 1900s at Blackfella Creek, where children were tied with wire and dragged by horses, and adults were shot as they fled. They were buried under rocks where they fell.
Brenda L Croft, from Yijarni
The Gurindji people of the Northern Territory made history 50 years ago by standing up for their rights to land and better pay. But a new book reveals the deeper story behind the Wave Hill Walk-Off.
Aboriginal elder Max Eulo holds a baby in front of a sea of 70,000 multi-coloured paper hands at the Sydney Opera House in December 2000.
David Gray/Reuters
Racism is again on the rise in many parts of the world. So is the dehumanisation of our enemies. What hope is there, then, for notions of a common humanity?
The silence at the end of Rio 2016 will only last until we switch on our televisions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Reuters/Issei Kato
The Olympic Games are a theatre — sometimes farce, sometimes tragedy, reality TV, morality play or soap opera — where geopolitical, social and technological dramas are played out.
The execution chamber at Utah State Prison.
T Woodard
When drug companies refused to ship chemicals to the US for use in lethal injections it led to several botched executions, reopening the debate over the death penalty.
Farming land in New South Wales.
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Growing population, growing demand for food, climate change: Australia’s rural lands are facing a number of pressures. So how can we sustainably use them in the future?
The century since the first world war is littered with the broken promises of Muslim rulers to bring about a transition to more representative forms of government.
AAP/Asmaa Abdelatif
The rise of Islamic State and its declaration of the caliphate can be read as part of a wider story that has unfolded since the formation of modern nation states in the Muslim world.
The revelation that autism didn’t have one cause helped researchers change their thinking.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
One of the great and enduring mysteries of autism is what causes the brain to develop so differently.
Pregnant women in three Australian cities are not told that lead exposure during pregnancy is linked to miscarriage and early delivery.
Flickr/Luca Montanari
Parents in three Australian states are being given misleading advice about the dangers of lead to babies and small children – including failing to warn pregnant women about miscarriage risks.
Julian Burnside at a hearing during the Tampa case in 2001.
AAP/John Hargest
What produces the differences between men and women? Are they trivial or profound? Are they genetic or environmental, or both? And are men really closer genetically to chimpanzees than to women?
Brian Wilson’s music – the subject of Love & Mercy – is like a lesson we relearn each time we listen.
Francois Duhamel/image.net
Much like the music of the man it’s based on, Love & Mercy is beautiful, complex, somewhat melancholy, and thought-provoking. It also teaches us some things about creative genius, innovation, and art.